Google isn’t much help-I just want some info on artists and writers who specifically identified a particular inspiring spirit whom they credited (perhaps tongue-in-cheek, or not) as helping them with their art or writing. I would have sworn that a number of creative types over the centuries had done that, including some in the modern era.
Well, the old joke is that Jack Daniels is responsible for a lot more creative inspiration than the Nine Muses…
I’ve never met a writer who speaks of a muse, per se. But many, MANY writers speak of their creativity as a process of “discovery.” It feels to them, not as if they are making stuff up, but as if they are transcribing events that “really happened” out there, somewhere. It feels as if there is a channel from some “other source” to their mind.
Most of them go on to admit this is simply the process of getting in touch with the unconscious mind. A small handful go off into woo and la-la over it, and try to argue that there “really is” a Barsoom or Narnia or whatnot.
In a slightly different vein, I have found one of the best ways to write about a character is to fall in love with that character (if only a little.) Also, for many, it works to go out on long walks and hold imaginary conversations with characters. Hillary Clinton famously remarked on having imaginary conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt. It sounds quirky, but as a “visualization tool,” it works – at least for some people.
Do you have in mind something like Dante’s Beatrice?
I’m confused as to whether you mean someone attributing inspiration to a literal Muse of the Greek pantheon, or a figurative muse – a person they knew who they drew inspiration from?
We are actually doing a work of theatre around the lives of four women who were prominent in the Order of the Golden Dawn. Two of them were “muses” for / had rather tempestuous relationships with writers of the age. Florence Farr was an actress and mistress of George Bernard Shaw. They inspired each other in their art, but ultimately butted heads a lot. Shaw was a great writer, but kind of an asshole. Farr also inspired some of Yeats’s works, however…
Yeats was utterly obsessed with Maud Gonne. A LOT of his poetry was basically written directly to her, and he wrote several plays with her in mind for the lead role (although she didn’t always accommodate him on that when it came time to produce them). He was basically in love with her for decades, even though she loved him only as a friend and collaborator. He proposed repeatedly throughout their multi-decade long friendship, and she invariably turned him down. In his 50s, he even went so far as to propose to Maud’s daughter (I guess as a Maud-surrogate? :eek: ) who also turned him down.
So in that sense, yes, they had their muses and identified them as such.
Wikipedia lists more than a few poets who would formally invoke or petition the muse at the beginning of their works. You just have to scroll down a bit.
If you’re having trouble formally petitioning the muse, I have a formthat you can use.
Dante’s Beatrice sounds like exactly the kind of entity I am interested in-thanks.
In the realm of music, Bernadette Peters is often referred to as Stephen Sondheim’s muse.
It could definitely be said that Liza Minnelli was Kander’s & Ebb’s muse.
My info is that Dante only saw Beatrice twice in his life.
The first time he saw her, she was 10 years old. Dante continued to woo
her mother, her sister or some other family member in order to keep seeing
Beatrice during her 10th year.
I don’t know about the rest of the country, but in Houston a muse is someone
you admire and idolise but whom you cannot touch or possess. A parent can
become a child’s muse if the parent is suddenly lost or removed by divorce.
Singanas
John Irving’s muses are bears. Seriously: he has said that he flounders around with his novels until he decides to bring a bear into the narrative, at which point it all starts to work.